Stocking-supporter.



No, 798,241 PATENTED JUNE 27, 1905. G. W. STIMSON.

STOCKING SUPPORTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 14. 1904.

INVENTOR m r Aim dial/4 7 wwG-M ATTOR N EYS N0. 793ml.

Patented June 27, 1905.

ATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES IV. STIMSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

STOCKlNG-SUPPORTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.'793,241, dated June 27, 1905.

Appl cation filed May 14, 1904. Serial No. 207,905.

To u/U whom it may ROII/(BPJTLI Be it known that 1, CHARLES \V. Srnrsoa, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city. county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in StockingSupporters; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in stocking-supporters; and it consists in a novel arrangement of stocking-supporting tapes whereby the abdomen of the wearer is repressed and supported in an easy and natural manner and without injurious action and whereby the stocking-supporter is rendered easy of adjustment and is permitted to conform readily to the movements of the individual wearer.

The objects of my invention are to give to the wearer an erect carriage and a graceful ligure, to avoid all injurious action, to both repress and support the abdomen, to render the stocking-supporter easily adjustable to persons of ditfcrent figures, to permit the stocking-supporter to conform readily to the movements of the wearer, and to make the stocking-s11 pporter simple, compact, and relatively inexpensive.

I will now proceed to describe my invention with reference to the accompanyingdrawings and will then point out the novel features in claims.

in the said drawings, Figure 1 shows a front view of one form of my improved stockingsupporter applied to a conventional female ligure, and Fig. 2 is a detail view illustrating an alternative feature of construction thereof.

)[y improved stocking-s11 pporter comprises a waist-piece l, which is usually a belt provided with the usual buckle 2 to permit ad justment and facilitate the application of the stocking-supporter. To the front portion of this belt 1 are secured, on opposite sides of the center line and well around toward the sides of the wearer, tapes 3, adapted to extend obliquely downward and to be secured each to a stocking on the opposite leg of the wearer. Other tapes I are secured to the belt 1 between the points of attachment of tapes 3, and these tapes a are adapted to hang directly downward, or nearly so, and to be secured each to the stocking on the corresponding leg of the wearer. \Vhile the tapes 3 may be stitched together at their point of intersection, as shown in Fig. 2, I prefer not to do so, but to leave them free for adjustment. Similarly I prefer not to connect tapes 4 and 3 where they cross.

I-Ieretofore it has been old to employ in stockirig-supporters a front pad supported by a waist-beltor by attachment to a corset, from which pad hang stocking-sup iorting tapes. The pull of these tapes on the pad is substantially directly downward or downward and to the sides. The pressure produced by the pads of such devices on the abdomen is therefore in the main downward and to some extent inward, and such pressure is exerted very close to the median line. cessive pressure along the median line, and especially downward pressure, is injurious and should be avoided. Moreover, pressure applied along the median line tends to produce bulging of the abdomen at the sides. A more natural and effective way of repressing the abdomen is to support it from beneath and at the same time press it in. This is accomplished by my improved stocking-supporter, since the tapes 3, lying as they do beneath the curve of the abdomen, act to support the same and also to repress it. This inward and upward pressure so exerted is not injurious, but, to the contrary. is benelicial. Furthermore, relatively little pressure is applied along the median line, most of the pressure being applied at the sides, and this effectually prevents bulging of the abdomen at the sides.

As used normally, the front portion of the waist-belt 1 of my stocking-supporter will be just below the lower edge of the corset when one is worn, and the tapes 3, which will ordinarily be fastened to thestockings well around toward the outside of the leg, will then be substantially parallel to the lines of the groins and to the libers ot' the external oblique muscles by which the abdomen is mainly supported. The action of the tapes 3 is therefore entirely in harmony with that of the It is well known that exmuscles. The vertical tapes 4 act mainly to support the stocking, but likewise have repressive action. Being substantially parallel to the rectus muscle, they give at the sides of that muscle substantially the same support which that muscle gives the abdomen at the center.

The action of the tapes 3 may be varied to adjust the stocking-supporter to difi'erent figures by shifting the points of attachment of said tapes to the stocking to one side or the other, and, if desired, one of the tapes 3 may be fastened to the stocking toward the inside of the leg and the other well around to the outside of the other leg, and thereby the action of the stocking-supporter will be varied so that the pressure will be exerted to one side of the median line instead of at the center. This is often desirable when one portion of the abdominal wall is weak, as after hernia or a surgical operation or when the wearer has a tumor.

It is obvious that my invention is susceptible to many variations and modifications, and I do not limit myself to the particular construction of the stocking supporter or the particular arrangement of tapes herein illustrated and described.

What I claim is 1. In a stocking-supporter, the combination with a front waistband having means for supporting same on the person of a wearer, of intermediate stocking-supporting tapes depending therefrom, and longer diagonal stocking-supporting tapes likewise secured to said band and extending from their points of attachment thereto across to the opposite side of the wearer.

2. In a stocking-supporter, the combination with a front waistband having means for supporting same on the person of a wearer, of intermediate stockingsupporting tapes depending therefrom, and longer diagonal stocking-supporting tapes likewise secured to said band and crossing each other below the same.

3. In a stocking-supporter, the combination with a front waistband having means for supporting same on the person of a wearer, of diagonal stocking supporting tapes secured thereto, and intermediate stocking-supporting tapes likewise secured to said waistband but arranged to hang more directly downward and crossing said diagonal tapes, said intermediate tapes each secured to a diagonal tape at its point of intersection therewith.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES W. STIMSON.

\Vitnesses:

D. HOWARD HAYWOOD, H. M. MARBLE. 

